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In 1977 we hired our first narrowboat from Anglo Welsh at Market Harborough.From that moment our destiny was set. In 2006 we finally purchased our own brand new 57' narrowboat which we named 'Free Spirit'. Our aim is to travel the length and breadth of all the navigable rivers and canals of the UK. This will be our story as it unfolds.

Monday 18 November 2013

The consequence of failing to torque the cylinder head bolts properly.



Yesterday Ian spent the whole day stripping the engine to see if the problems we experienced with the cooling system was indeed caused by the head casket. And it was. In three places the casket had shown signs of scuffing which would have allowed the combustion gases to leak into the coolant system. He also worryingly noticed the cylinder block had a slight deformity. When we first bought the boat in 2006 he asked the question  'if after 500 hours would the bolts have to be re torqued'. The answer came back as no. This sort of rang alarm bells in Ian's head because if there is one thing Ian knows about and that's engines. Anyway, never having a diesel engine before he bowed to the 'so called' experts knowledge. Consequently now he wishes he had trusted his own judgement and re torqued the bolts anyway. So he now deduces that the slight bow in the cylinder block was caused by the bolts not being torqued properly in the first place, which in turn caused the head to warp  Ian thinks that the uneven loading created by unevenly tightened head bolts could have caused the distortion. The only thing to be done was for the cylinder head to be re skimmed. Thankfully he found a garage nearby with the facility to do just that and the added bonus was he didn't have to remove the valves, only make sure they were all in the closed position. Total cost for the job.....£25. With Ian dropping the head cylinder to the garage this afternoon, he was assured that he could collect it tomorrow morning. Quite exciting to think that by tomorrow night we could have a working engine again.



And finally:-








2 comments:

Brian and Diana on NB Harnser said...

He was lucky not only to find someone who could skim it then find some who could set it up with the valves and springs still in place and all for £25. If I were you I would let him buy the lottery tickets this week

Ian and Irene Jameison said...

Hi Brian,

I thought the price was a bit to reasonable. Not so sure now after your comment. I do hope the garage doesn't screw up and I'm wandering, should I be worried?

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